Fight for Freedom
by Marmona
Summary: Life was great for Sonic and Tails. Until the people came and separated them in the name of slavery. Now Sonic must cope as a slave on a small cotton farm with his crabby owner.However, Sonic along with slaves Silver and Shadow are determined to get away.
1. Welcome to Slavery

Sonic the hedgehog sat in the back of a cheap, wooden stagecoach. The wagon bumped and rattled horribly, half due to the tired horse that pulled it, and to the rutted dirt road. Rusty iron handcuffs firmly bound his bare wrists and ankles together with a chain. The chain made deep clinking sound against itself, and the handcuffs were built way too tight. Sonic's wrists burned with soreness to the very bone.

However, the young hedgehog didn't struggle. He didn't even survey his surroundings. Sonic simply sat, limp and exhausted with a shocked expression still glazed over his emerald eyes. The terrifying events of the past hour kept replaying over and over in his head with torturous detail.

"Tails…" Sonic whispered to himself, feeling his eyes become watery. _Where was his best friend now? Was he in the same situation as Sonic?_

The two had been stolen from their forest homes that morning and shipped to a horrible auction of animals. He didn't even know auctions like that existed until now. At least, the hedgehog hoped that whoever had purchased the fox was being humane to him.

The driver of the stagecoach, a human male Sonic only knew to call Master, glanced back at him every now and then. His eyes were critical and searching, as if he were sizing his passenger up. The blue hedgehog was vaguely aware of this, but he tried his best to ignore it.

Eventually the road smoothed out a bit, and the stage coach slowed to a stop. Sonic could hear the voice of Master murmuring an order to someone new that must have approached him. "Take Prairie to the stable and brush her down, give her something to eat too."

"Yes sir."

Sonic could not see what was happening outside, because the stagecoach had wooden walls and a tin roof. It looked almost like a portable shed. Master came around to the back of the coach and opened the back door. The wooden door opened from the top and came down to the ground, forming a ramp. With a simple hand gesture, he signaled for the hedgehog to get out.

As soon as Sonic stepped into the dark night outside, he realized there were three large dogs standing beside Master. They all looked the same with fur that was short, brown, and dappled. They also had big, pointed ears and the massive chests of a hound built for running. The dogs started a fit of howling and barking at the sight of the hedgehog, causing Sonic's quills to bristle in terror. The dogs, he realized, even had large teeth.

Master ordered the hounds to back off with a sharp whistle and turned back to the Sonic. "Get down here, boy."

Sonic obeyed, that betrayed look of a wounded puppy still on his features.

"You do not look me in the eyes!" Master snapped, slapping him across the face.

The hedgehog blinked in surprise and silently stared at the dirt ground. The hounds got excited again. They paced in tight circles around Master and Sonic, drooling, whining, and licking their lips.

"Sonic, understand this. You work for me now. Your only purpose in life is to serve me. If you disobey, you will be punished. If you don't put every fiber of your being into your work, you will be punished. If you try to escape, you will be caught and punished, or killed in the process. You see those dogs? They will watch you for the rest of your life, keep you in line, and make sure you never leave this property without my permission. Now, look at my hands."

Sonic looked up slightly, careful to avoid Master's face. He saw a thick, heavy coiled rope in his hands.

"This," explained Master, "is a whip. It is a tool of discipline."

With unexpected speed, Master swung the whip at the hedgehog. Sonic cried out in pain and surprise as it lashed his shoulder. The whip left a deep welt, and the wound began to bleed almost immediately.

"Every time you make a mistake, the whip will correct you. Do as a say, and you will never taste it again. Is that clear?"

Sonic quietly answered him, staring at the ground again. "Yes, Master… sir."

"If I take your shackles off, will you run?"

"…"

Master snapped his whip warningly at the hedgehog's bare feet. "Will you run?" He repeated.

Sonic glanced at the whip, and then at the circling dogs before replying in a defeated monotone. "No sir."

"Do you know what will happen if you run; or even resist at all?"

"Yes sir."

Finally, Master seemed satisfied. He pulled a key out of his pocket and efficiently removed the shackles from his slave's wrists and ankles.

Sonic sighed quietly, rubbing the skin on his wrists that had turned raw. It was unbelievable how tight those shackles had been, they had even taken his skin clean off in some places.

"Go to that barn over there. That's where you will sleep from now on. You are to be up at dawn to pick cotton. If you have any questions ask the other two slaves, but don't bother me."

Sonic made a cautious walk to the barn, flanked by the trio of hounds the entire way. As he moved away from Master, he was able to take in his surroundings a little better. The land he was on was a fair amount of acres. It couldn't possibly supply a large company with all of the crops it needed, but it could definitely make enough money support a family. The next thing he noticed was that the farm only grew cotton with the exception of a small vegetable garden next to the barn he was heading to. There was also a nice house about 100 meters away from his barn with a stable next to it. The stable connected to a corral that spread far enough to come within a few inches of his barn.

Sonic was getting close to the barn by now. His ears pricked up at the sound of a shrill whinny, and he spotted the nose of a horse forcing its way through the bars of the metal corral fence. He checked behind him to see if he was being watched.

Nobody but the dogs were in sight, and even they were beginning to wander off a bit by now; although the biggest still seemed to be keeping a close eye on him. Sonic shrugged them off and tentatively approached the horse. As he got closer, the hedgehog realized that the horse was very young; in fact, it still had some thin traits in its legs that are usually more defined in a foal.

The horse blew through its nose on his bare hand and nuzzled it in a friendly way. Sonic liked the horse almost immediately. He gave it a few gentle strokes along its snout, smiling for the first time that afternoon. As he stroked, he took in the pattern of her fur. It was interesting, with small black and white speckles. It looked almost as if she had been completely white at one point, but had somehow met the misfortune to become covered in grains of pepper.

"She usually bites."

Sonic jumped, startled at the new voice behind him.

"Sorry, I probably scared you." A new hedgehog, similar looking in age, approached him. The interesting placement of his quills caught Sonic's attention, along with the bleached color of his fur.

The white hedgehog looked Sonic over. Sizing him up, just like Master had done. "My name is Silver." he held out his hand.

"I'm Sonic." The blue hedgehog greeted, shaking hands with Silver.

"Hello Sonic. Why don't you come inside the barn? There are fewer mosquitos in there. Besides, I don't think Master would take kindly to seeing you associate with Bluebell. She's kind of a special horse; he plans to enter her in a lot of shows once she's a little older.

"Oh, right." Sonic said, embarrassed as he followed Silver to the barn.

"It's okay."

The inside of the barn was a little more humid than it was outside, it was also much darker. Sonic's fur prickled uncomfortably from the stuffy air. There were two large clumps of moldy hay on either side of the wall, with sunken down areas in the middle. It didn't take long for Sonic to guess that the hay was where the slaves slept.

"I'm sorry." Silver apologized. "It's not much. In fact, you probably won't have much of a bed until we can convince Master to give us a little more hay when it gets colder. You can have the far wall, across from the door. I'll give you some of the hay from my bed too, but the other slave, Shadow… I don't know if he'll want to share."

"Sure, thanks."

Sonic went to his side of the room and leaned against the walls, hugging his knees. The thought of Tails entered his mind again, and he began to feel teary. However, he swallowed and focused on loosening his wrists up instead. There was no way he was going to cry with Silver watching him.

"Hey Sonic." The blue hedgehog looked up to acknowledge Silver, who had come with an armful of hay. The white hedgehog dumped the hay down next to him.

"Thanks for the hay Silver, I appreciate it." Sonic told him halfheartedly. He knew he should have thanked him a little more nicely than that. After all, Silver had just given half of what he used for his own bedding. It had been a really hard day though, and he felt traumatized, confused, and not really up to showing any enthusiastic gratitude for an armful of moldy hay.

"I'm sorry, I'll leave you alone Sonic. I'm sure life probably just sucks for you right now."

"You could say that." The blue hedgehog responded miserably, gathering up his hay into a pile. It was just enough to make a decent pillow. _Great. _He thought. _Just great. _With that, Sonic lay down, faced the wall, and, -in a very hedgehog-like manner- curled up into a ball.

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_Yes, I do plan on making later chapters. But please don't expect me to be consistent with updating. I'm not that lazy, but I'm on break right now and it's over very shortly. Therefore, school will begin to eat my life again soon. So… I'll write when I have the time. _

_Thanks for reading!_


	2. Meet Shadow

Enthusiasm from starting a new fanfiction had me writing during the school week in any spare moment I had, which is why the next chapter was finished so early. As always, thanks for taking the time to read!

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"You will NEVER lash out like that again!"

Sonic awoke, startled, as there was a loud thud against the door of the barn. His ears twitched, listening to the quiet shuffling sound of Silver waking up as well.

The blue hedgehog uncurled and got himself into a sitting position as more shouting started up outside the barn.

The voices were unrecognizable. They both sounded young, and one was slightly rougher sounding than the other.

The rougher voice replied defiantly. "I'll lash out at you whenever I want! Nobody, gets away with speaking badly about Maria, NOBODY! Especially simple minded brats like you!"

There was a smacking sound, and then another thud against the barn wall. Whoever had just been speaking began to snarl furiously, but they were abruptly silenced by some unknown action.

The other voice spoke to him in a hard, threatening tone. "If you slaves weren't so freaking expensive, I'd slit your throat right now for behaving like that. But keep fighting; I might just do it anyway." There was a brief pause, and then it continued teasingly. "You know what your problem is, Shadow? You're too rebellious. Maria made you soft."

"SHUT UP!" There were scratching sounds against the barn wall. Someone was struggling.

And then, a crack. Followed by more and more repetitive cracks.

Sonic flinched, recognizing the sound of a whip. The deep cut on his shoulder from earlier burned in sympathy for whoever was receiving that beating.

The whipping lasted a good few minutes. Sonic huddled in his corner while Silver got up and paced. The white hedgehog's face was creased with worry. He kept pausing, as if he wanted to rush out the door right then and there to stop the beating, but a restraining common sense held him back.

Suddenly, everything was quiet. The voice that didn't belong to Shadow sounded much more calm than earlier when it broke the silence. "It's not a lot of fun when you don't scream." Something thudded against the door, and a pained intake of breath was heard. "And don't think you get a break from work just because you won't be able to walk properly tomorrow." The tormentor chuckled, and then his footsteps could be heard walking away.

Silver raced over to open the barn door. "Shadow, oh my God!" He kneeled down and awkwardly dragged Shadow into the barn, trying his best not to upset any of the numerous gashes that the slave had.

Sonic got up to observe quietly. Shadow, like him and Silver, was a hedgehog and very similar in age. He had ebony colored fur, with maroon stripes running down his arms, quills, and legs. However, it was hard to distinguish these stripes with all of the dirt, blood, and poor lighting. It even took a few moments for Sonic to realize that the hedgehog had a white patch of fur on his chest as well.

Shadow didn't seem to notice that someone unfamiliar was in the room. His jaw clamped together tightly, and he stared through half-lidded eyes at the barn ceiling with an exhausted tint to his expression.

Silver placed a hand on the ebony hedgehog's forehead, causing him to flinch and bare his teeth unpleasantly.

"Hush, breathe Shadow, it's just me." Silver reassured him. Then, he turned fervently to Sonic. "Get some water, will you? There's a well behind the barn."

Sonic was quick to get his task done. He didn't feel safe at all outside, and for good reason too. The entire time he hauled the bucket out of the well, the three big farm dogs hung around. They didn't really do anything terrible, but they did growl threateningly and blow hot canine breath in his face as he moved about. It was enough to make anyone nervous.

When Sonic returned, he found the other two slaves talking quietly. Silver was sitting intently with his legs crossed, while Shadow lay somewhat uncomfortably before him. If the ebony hedgehog wasn't panting and bleeding so much, Sonic could have mistaken the scene for a therapy session.

Shadow's voice cracked when he spoke. Sonic wasn't sure if it was from his current pain, or just adolescence. "Only a jerk… like Clint would… give that brat a whip…. And now a knife? I bet… Colton will be aiming… a rifle at me … by next week. "

"He almost severed a major artery." Silver mused, looking over a deep tear on Shadow's throat.

"I don't think… I would have minded-"

"Quiet Shadow!" Silver snapped.

The ebony hedgehog gave him a slightly surprised look.

Silver sighed, making his tone a bit more kind. "I know you miss Maria… but take care of yourself, okay? It's only been a few weeks. Time will make things easier for you, I promise."

Shadow frowned and coughed distastefully. "Shut up Silver."

Silver obeyed, looking a little hurt. It was then that he glanced at the door and noticed Sonic, who was waiting for a break in their conversation where he could interrupt.

Shadow was more awake than he had been before, and he followed Silver's gaze to notice Sonic for the first time. His red irises narrowed sparked with fiery hostility immediately. "Who are you?"

Sonic put the water down and sat a small distance away from the bloody hedgehog. He felt guilty, like he was intruding on something important. "Sorry, I'm Sonic…"

Silver cut in impatiently. "Clint bought a new slave today, now calm down Shadow. I'm going to wash those cuts out." He focused his gaze on the bucket of water, and in a quick moment, two oval imprints on the back of his hands began to shine brightly while his golden eyes took on a faint glow.

Sonic watched in fascination as Silver made the water defy gravity and move accordingly to his will without even touching it.

The water made its way over to Shadow, and under Silver's control, began to move through the fresh lash marks, picking up blood and dirt as it went. It must have not been that pleasant, because Shadow gasped and flinched when the water first touched him. He got over it quickly though, and accepted Silver's hospitality silently.

When Silver finished, the now-filthy water poured itself neatly back into the bucket without leaving a drop behind on the ebony hedgehog. Silver looked over Shadow carefully to make sure he got every cut before he asked, "Do you want to try and get into your bed?"

Shadow shifted slightly and winced before answering. "No."

"Can you get up?"

Shadow's ears flattened subconsciously. "No," he admitted. Sonic realized he must have been humiliated.

Silver looked sympathetic. "I'll help you."

Shadow turned away and curled up slightly on his side. "No… I'm fine... Go to sleep."

The white hedgehog sighed quietly and looked to Sonic. "Fine, you should probably get some rest too. We have to get up at dawn."

The moment Sonic curled up, he was fast asleep. Of course, as it is for anyone who goes to bed late and wakes up at the break of dawn, morning came way too early.

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Um… nothing really important happened in this chapter besides the introduction of Shadow. (Hence the chapter name) Either way, angsty scenes with blood are fun to write.


	3. Cotton Picking

Sonic's POV

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I awoke to Silver shaking me by the shoulders. It was outrageously early, and if it was anyone besides the only talking being on this farm that was actually nice to me, I probably would have said something mean. Instead, I pretended to sleep in hope that he would leave me alone. Of course, he didn't.

"Sonic." Silver's urgent whisper was close to my ears, "You have to get up, now."

He was probably right. With a groan, I gave in and opened my eyes.

Silver was kneeling down next to me with that already familiar sympathetic look on his face. "I'm sorry Sonic, but you really need to get up. If Clint decides to check on us and you're not awake, he'll hurt you." Then he handed me a tomato and called it breakfast.

Speaking of punishments, I suddenly remembered Shadow. The ebony hedgehog has somehow been moved to his bed against the wall. His cuts were replaced by lots of thick scabs by now. It made his fur stick together in messy looking clumps. Silver didn't move to wake him up when we headed out the door. The white hedgehog must have decided that Shadow would be better off sleeping in, despite the risks of getting in trouble for it later. I couldn't blame Silver for that decision though, because Shadow really did look like he needed the rest.

For such a cruddy start for the first day of the rest of my slaving life, the weather outside was gorgeous. The sun was just rising, setting everything aglow with a gold tinge. The sky ranged from hues of yellows, pinks, and eventually blue and purples. It was like some cruel joke that I had to spend the day picking cotton.

"Sonic?"

I looked at Silver to show him that I was paying attention. The poor guy, he looked worried again. He almost always looked worried about something. He was constantly giving off this apprehensive mood like some scared little animal.

"You can't tell Clint about that thing I did with the water last night, okay?"

"Okay… but who's Clint?

"That's Master's first name."

"Oh… Silver, what exactly was it that you did? How did you make the water float like that?"

Silver studied the back of his hands. In the daylight, I noticed that the places where they had glowed was missing fur, leaving an oval shaped scar on both hands.

"I don't really know." Silver answered. "I've just been able to do things like that since I was born. Clint took it away a long time ago, but… it's been growing back."

I missed something there. "He took it away? How?"

Silver averted his gaze to the ground. "My abilities come from the imprints on my hands. There used to be blue fur on them… but Master cut it all out."

"Cut? As in, with a knife?"

"Yeah."

I have to admit, that scared me. We didn't speak to each other again until we got to the tool shack that was built into the stables.

Silver handed me a potato sack. "You've got to fill that with cotton by the time it gets dark."

I took the potato sack, taking note that was half my length. I was going to be very busy today.

Silver led me to one of the many rows of cotton plants and gave me instructions on how to pick cotton. Then he left, telling me that he had to go milk the goats that lived in the stables.

The cotton picking was simple to understand, really. I pick boll, pull the burr out, and keep the cotton. The hard part is not jabbing your hands on the thorns from burrs, and repeating the picking action for several hours. I'm very lucky that I'm short, or else I'd have to bend to pick each boll too. Bending that many times would probably snap my spine in half or something.

Before too long, Silver joined me. He must have noticed how bad I was at avoiding the thorns on the cotton burrs, because he mentioned that my hands would stop bleeding as much when I jabbed them after a few weeks.

That fact didn't make me feel any better, but it was kind of nice that he bothered to tell me.

It hadn't been very long when Silver suddenly stopped picking and got that nervous look on his face again.

"What?"

"Colton, he's the son of Master."

I followed Silver's gaze to find a teenage boy leaving the house and coming in our direction. He held something coiled in his hands, most likely a whip. "What does he want?"

"Colton is the one who flogged Shadow last night. He rarely ever wakes up this early… he must be coming out to make sure Shadow's out here. His dad gets mad at him when he makes us too crippled to work."

Colton didn't sound like a very charming guy. I got back to picking cotton, a little faster than before. Silver followed my actions, but Colton kept coming.

The son of Master is just like his dad, only younger. When he got to us, he snapped his whip on the ground to get our attention. "Silver, where's Shadow?"

The first thing I noticed about Colton close up, was that he had a big, bloody bite-mark on his arm that hadn't even begun to heal.

Silver noticed it too. His gaze flickered on it momentarily before he answered the boy's question. "We left him to sleep in this morning."

"Why'd you do that?"

"Colton, please… Shadow's very hurt. He can barely stand up by himself. There's no possible way he could be out here right now."

"Shut up."

Silver flinched automatically, but thankfully, Colton didn't strike him. Instead, he turned and headed over to the barn. Of course, that wasn't good either.

"He's going after Shadow." Silver said anxiously.

I felt like doing something to help Shadow, but it seemed pretty stupid. From what I'd seen and heard, Colton seemed like the kind of person to carry a lot of weapons with him. But no living thing deserves to be treated like that.

Silver looked like he was contemplating the same thing as me. He also seemed to make up his mind more quickly as he dropped his collection of cotton to chase after Colton.

Well, I wasn't going to sit out of this. I dropped my stuff too and followed Silver.

Colton had already gotten to the barn when we caught up.

Shadow was awake and sitting against the wall, but man, did he look out of it. Colton was impatiently nudging the hedgehog with his foot, which Shadow responded to with a loathing glare. "Back off, brat." he growled.

"Stand up Shadow."

It didn't seem possible, but Shadow's glare intensified until it could have set Colton on fire. Still, he did as he was told- at least, he attempted it-. It took a long time, and Shadow was unable to get his legs to support him without the help of the wall, which he leaned on the entire time.

"Now walk."

I had been impressive how Shadow was able to get himself to stand without so much as a flinch, but I had a feeling that he was just really good at hiding the pain. There were little things that gave him away, like the labored way he was breathing, and the way his red irises had narrowed down to tiny slits. I really didn't think he'd be able to walk.

Silver didn't think so either. He surprised me by placing himself protectively in front of Shadow. "Colton, stop."

I was even more surprised when Colton got a hesitant nature about him for a brief moment, as if he were actually heeding Silver's words.

However, he came back into reality when Master's voice rang out from outside. "Colton!"

Silver, Shadow and I all pricked our ears instinctively to the noise while Colton's expression turned to panic. Master continued to call; the increasing strength of the sound told us that he was coming closer to the barn.

Colton shoved Silver out of the way and began to nudge Shadow again. "Stand up, stand up!"

The barn door opened, and Master came in. He looked at Shadow as if he were surprised at his condition, and then looked at Colton with a frown. "You call THAT a moderate beating?"

"Dad, he was fighting back!"

Master didn't buy it. "Those cuts look infected, Colton! When a slave can't work, we lose money! You know what? You deserved to get bitten!"

"But dad-"

"I don't want excuses!" Master turned to Silver. "Get Shadow in the house and disinfect his wounds. There's rubbing alcohol in the medicine cabinet."

Silver nodded smartly and responded, "Yes sir." before approaching Shadow. The ebony hedgehog gave him an unfriendly look, which Silver responded to with an impatient sigh. "Get over it Shadow." He muttered, "I'm carrying you whether you like it or not."

Master looked at me next, and then at his son again. "Colton, go pick cotton for the rest of the day with Sonic."

Colton's face got really red, but he didn't protest. Instead, he gave me the death look.

Yeah, like it was my fault he beat up Shadow. Anyway, as you can imagine, picking cotton with Colton wasn't a walk in the park. He laughed at me whenever I got stabbed by a cotton thorn, even though his hands were a bloody mess. He tried to make conversation with me a few times too.

"Hey Sonic, that's your name right?"

His tone told me that he was picking a fight, but I replied with a "yes," anyway. After all his dad had taken the whip away from him, but he still a knife in a leather sheath attached to his belt.

"What kind of parent names their child Sonic?"

"Hmm…" Maybe if I didn't give him a straight answer, he'd leave me alone.

"Why is your fur blue? Do you have a disease or something? Ha! Loser, you just stabbed yourself on another thorn! You must be really dumb. Hey, you know, it helps if you put salt on those punctures. You should try it."He laughed to himself after saying that.

I put up with these attacks on my self-esteem for maybe about an hour until Silver joined us. Then, Colton made up some excuse to run off into the forest of trees nearby the property. He didn't come back.

"Shadow's asleep again. He looks really bad but I think he'll be okay real soon."

"Oh… that's good." I should have sounded more happy than I did, but I really didn't know Shadow that well in the first place.

Just then, Silver found a snail on one of the cotton plants and did the weirdest thing I've ever witnessed him do. He picked it up and put it in his mouth.

"What… are you doing?"

Silver gave me an odd look and chewed on the snail. I could hear its shell crunching between his teeth, and when he answered me, there was foam on his tongue. "Eating?"

I gave him an awkward stare for a few seconds, and he seemed to catch on.

"You've never eaten a snail, Sonic?"

I grimaced, "No, I didn't think they were edible... or sanitary."

Silver smiled with amusement. "They're not that bad; Shadow says our ancestors ate bugs all the time, so it's natural. Besides, it helps us to save the food from our garden for winter." He gave me a friendly smile. "I'll let you try the next snail that we find, but if you're really curious, you can try a boll weevil. There are lots of those, but they crunch a lot and don't taste as good as the snails."

"Thanks for the tip."

Silver's laugh was pleasant as he heard the sarcasm in my voice.

We finished picking cotton by the late afternoon, which was a bit sooner than I thought. In that time, I learned that snails, after you got past the residue of slime and foam, taste a lot like watery almonds.

For the rest of the day, Silver and I hung out by the barn. The air was really humid, like usual. Silver lazily stretched out on the ground like one of the farm dogs. His fur had little wisps of cotton in it that blended in naturally with his white coloring and fluffy chest fur.

He looked so at home, I couldn't help but ask him. "Silver, how long have you been here?"

Silver picked the more damp patches soil for any edible bugs while he pondered the question. "I'm not sure Sonic, about as long as I can remember…"

"Really?"

"Well…" He reconsidered for a moment. "I had parents that took care of me, in a place far away from here." Silver shook his head. "But that was a really long time ago. It's just a lot of fuzzy memories."

"Oh."

Silver sighed and rolled over to stare at the sky. A light in his eyes that I had never noticed before seemed to fade, as if he were depressed.

I got the feeling that Silver remembered a lot more than he was telling me.

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I really don't have a reason for switching to first person point of view besides experimenting. I might switch back and forth throughout the story.

And... did anyone think this chapter was too slow? Please let me know if it is, I don't want to post boring chapters.

By the way, in my book, Sonic can eat bugs, whether he likes it or not. :)


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